The (temporary) demise of SOPA and PIPA means attention is now turning to ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), which is an international effort to strengthen intellectual property rights. ACTA not only threatens websites, but also other things like low-cost medicines. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States are the key players, but pressure is already being applied to other countries to join. The EU has not yet signed ACTA but has to do so before May 2013.

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The really scary thing about ACTA is that it provides the basis to criminalise almost any online activity. Obviously governments aren’t going to round up 99% of internet users, but ACTA will give them a pretext to shut down any site, and imprison its owners, should there be political or corporate objections to that site’s content.

[link to 100gf.wordpress.com]




Here's from the Office of the United States Trade Representative website:

On October 1, 2011, eight ACTA negotiating partners signed what will become the highest-standard plurilateral agreement ever achieved concerning the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a groundbreaking initiative by key trading partners to strengthen the international legal framework for effectively combating global proliferation of commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy. In addition to calling for strong legal frameworks, the agreement also includes innovative provisions to deepen international cooperation and to promote strong intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement practices. Together, these provisions will help to support American jobs in innovative and creative industries against intellectual property theft.

[link to www.ustr.gov]


Here's the PDF of the treaty:

[link to www.mofa.go.jp]




Is this the international version of SOPA and PIPA?